Child of Night: The Whispers
by falling winter roses
Summary: Astera Malfoy, Izzy Weasley, and Tris Potter are starting their first year at Hogwarts. They're hoping for a fun but peaceful year, but with Astera's constant adventures, a strange, whispered prophecy, and the lurking of a truth that might tear the family of four apart, this is sure to be an actionpacked emotional rollercoaster ride of a Hogwarts school year. (c'mon, gimme a chance
1. Chapter 1

**Child of Night: The Whispers**

 _Book I in my Child of Night series_

 **Full summary:** It's been eleven years since the birth of Astera Malfoy, and now she's off to Hogwarts with her best friends Tris Potter and Izzy Weasley. But soon after she arrives, strange things start happening. A dark, lurking feeling haunts her wherever she goes and strange, recurring dreams occur in her now fitful sleep. There's a reason behind all of this, of course, and her mother Hermione fears she knows what it is. What with Astera's constant adventures, a strange, whispered prophecy, and the lurking of a truth that might tear the family of four apart, this is sure to be an action-packed emotional roller coaster ride of a Hogwarts school year.

 **The next generation and their families:**

The Malfoy Family: Draco, Hermione, **Astera (11),** Anza (4)

The Potter Family: Harry, Ginny, **Tristina (11),** Ethan (5), Evan (5)

The Weasley Family: Ron, Lavender, **Isabelle (11)** , Sera (9), Luna (7), Lupa (7), Thea (6), Nereida (4), Leo (1)

 **This series follows the canon HP timeline. It also follows this timeline for PJO/HoO:**

 **2004: The Lightning Thief**

 **2005: The Sea of Monsters**

 **2005: The Titan's Curse**

 **2006: The Battle of the Labyrinth**

 **2007: The Last Olympian**

 **2008: The Lost Hero**

 **2009: Rest of the Heroes of Olympus**

 **Keep in mind that it is currently 2010, this story starting in August before the three girls' first Hogwarts school year.**

 **NOTE: This series, of course, ignores the Cursed Child. It also ignores the Trials of Apollo. There are some major changes between the actual series and how history went in this series:**

 **MY CHANGES (major spoilers for the hp series): Draco is caught and joins the order. Harry and Draco teamed up against the Dark Lord to kill him, since they shared the power of the Elder wand, as Draco was only partially Disarmed. Hermione falls in love with Draco, causing Ron to get back with Lavender. Snape is not killed, and he remains alive and resurrects Dumbledore with the power that the murderer of a person can only hold. Narcissa moves over to the "good side" along with her son. Fred does not die, but loses his wand arm. Lupin and Tonks do not die. Percy does die. Lucius Malfoy dies. Bellatrix Lestrange does not die, but goes missing after the Battle of Hogwarts.**

 **A/N: The first few chapters of this story may be slightly boring. This, however, is simply the beginning of how this story will start out, and trust me, it gets exciting :) (my outline says so) I'm not sure how I want updates to go: tell me, should I do it weekly, every other day, etc...**

 **Child of Night: The Whispers**

 **Chapter One**

A sigh escaped Draco Malfoy as he sat at his paper strewn table, staring at the one paper that rose above them all: a sealed envelope made from heavy parchment, sealed with wax, holding a life changing letter—a letter that would take away his darling Ast for good. Take her away, off to a faraway castle where who-knows-what could happen. Off she went.

The time had truly flown by, the young man thought as he stared absentmindedly at the heavy envelope. He sighed (again). Eleven years. Ten of which he had practically completely missed, due to the way he'd thrown himself into his work—hence the table heaped with parchments and papers and documents and who knows what else.

He surely didn't.

The man had quit his job as an Auror soon after baby Astera was born, too afraid that he would die and leave the young girl fatherless. Instead of the out-on-the-field job, he buried himself in heaps of parchments and papers and worked endlessly. Day and night. This was his repentance, his price to pay for the lives he had ended through his treachery in those old days. He barely had any time for a restroom break these days, let alone time to spend with his eleven-year-old daughter.

No matter how much he liked to pretend that she was still a child, that he still had time with her before she went out of his protecting, yet distant arms to the big wide scary world that was much too big for her (in Draco's opinion, at least), it wasn't true. Though a mere titch in stature—a late bloomer like her mother before her—she was growing in mind to be a scarily mature and knowledgeable young lady.

Yet another sigh escaped the young man, which was cut off by the sudden banging open of the large oak doors to Draco's workroom (a much more airier and cheerful place than his dark study) from the main house of Malfoy Manor.

The frenzied whirlwind that had banged open the old oak doors was Astera Narcissa Malfoy, a blur of eleven-year-old that was in constant movement. How she was going to manage sitting still in her classes for all that time (especially History of Magic, Draco thought to himself with a small chuckle) was going to be some kind of miracle that Draco didn't know.

Short, lean, and with a permanent sly expression that threatened mischief on her face, one would be well think to be careful around the little blur of energy. Astera Malfoy was born for mischief-making: her father a fantastically evil and cunning wizard and her mother a fantastically brave and smart witch made way for a fantastical mischief-maker to be born. Sure, she was fantastically smart as well, but, as put by her much more rule-following best friend Tris Potter, she was more apt to be found 'dossing around' with her other best friend, Izzy Weasley.

The two parents could not have been more proud of their daughter—well, Hermione could have been, her daughter being after all quite the mischief maker, which didn't quite sit that well with the former Gryffindor prefect.

"Has it come? Dad, did it come?!" Large brown excited eyes stared up at him from the pale and childishly rounded out face of Astera Malfoy. Locks of curly black hair tumbled down across her shoulders and around her excited face.

Behind her, her two best friends in the whole entire wide, wide world (as put by the young Malfoy herself) followed her in. They were cousins, but looked absolutely nothing like it. Tristina Potter had the graceful stature of her mother with the dark hair and exactly shaped and colored eyes of her father and grandmother before her. Isabelle Weasley, on the other hand, had the flaming red hair and freckled face of most children of Weasley heritage. She had a permanent and feisty grin on her face, which differed greatly from the much more serious demeanor of her cousin Tristina.

It was obvious what she was asking for: her Hogwarts letter. For the past half year, Astera had talked her parents' ears off with all her excitement for Hogwarts. That excitement had not waned in the past three months, and so it was to be expected that she would come for it so excitedly.

"What, this?" Draco plucked the envelope from the top of the paper-and-parchment pile, twirling the heavy letter with graceful, long fingers.

A grin instantly spread across the young girl's face at the sight of the letter. As fast as lightning (the tiny girl really could be quite fast when she wanted to, she'd won many a race at the Burrow), the girl sped across the room, plucked the letter right from her father's hand, and raced back to her friends' sides, joining them in a ridiculously silly victory dance before Draco had the chance to even blink.

"What's all this commotion about down here?" Hermione said as she entered the room, a smile adorning her beautiful face.

Draco would never get tired of staring at that gorgeous face of hers.

"I've got my letter, I've got my letter, I've got my letter," Astera chanted as she danced around with her two best friends. It was truly an effort for Draco not to go bursting out with an uncontrollable fit of laughter.

Hermione, it seemed, had the same sentiments, her eyes sparkling with joyous, loving laughter. Draco remembered all the times when he had caused that same sparkle to appear, and he smiled, caught in the whirlwind ride of memory as he had been so many countless times before.

"Hey, Dad, can we go over to Tris'?" Astera's voice drew the young man from his stupor and he blinked in confusion for a moment.

Hermione laughed. "Your Auror capabilities are truly fading away, Draco."

"Oh, sod off," Draco grumbled fondly. "And sure, but on my words, that Potter-Weasley family of yours is going to take all my children away, what with Anza spending most of her time at Ron's with those trouble-making twins."

"Agreed, they suck," Izzy laughed, still a tad out of breath from their little victory dance. Draco wondered if they would get tired after doing it three times. At each of their respective houses. "Bloody harp—"

"—players," Tris finished, giving Izzy a warning look. Tris, for some reason, took great offense to the word that Izzy so commonly used, though neither of the other two best friends knew why. It may have been the actual definition of the word, which Lavender often used.

Astera grinned. "Sod off, both of you."

The three of them linked arms and skipped off to the biggest fireplace in the house, the one they used for Flooing, singing some part of a Muggle musical—"We're off to see the wizard!"

Draco bemusedly stared after them. "'The wizard?'"

Perhaps _that_ Muggle movie reference was a bit more magical than most.

/\/\/\

Two more victory dances and a lot of yelling later, Astera reappeared in the fireplace, a grin etched into her lips. It would no doubt remain on her pretty face for the rest of the day, and perhaps much longer than that.

"Dad, Uncle Harry and Uncle Ron say that we can go get our supplies today, maybe we can all go together? Pleaseee?"

Draco sighed, glancing back to the pile of papers on his desk. "I'm not sure, sweetie, I've got a lot of paperwork to deal with an—"

"The paperwork can wait, darling," Hermione cut him off. "I'm sure you have time for one little day trip?" Her raised eyebrows and stern look spoke plainly that Hermione was not to be argued with on this particular matter.

Draco sighed again, looking back to his daughter's forlorn expression—an expression that she donned every time her father's work became more important than spending time with his daughter, an expression, Draco was sad to say, had been present on her young face on many an occasion. "Yes, it can wait."

Astera's face burst back into a wide grin. "Thank you Dad! Yay! They said to meet them down at the Leaky Cauldron in twenty minutes."

The walk from the city entrance to Malfoy Manor down to the Leaky Cauldron was a mere brisk ten minute walk, but due to Astera's bounding ahead and back and so on as well as the slow ambling of her parents caused the walk to take almost twenty minutes: making them right on time with Ginny, who had two excited and joyous youngsters on her hands. Harry and Ron had both gone ahead from work to meet up at the Cauldron, and during the wait for the rest of them, had enjoyed a few glasses of exploding brandy, which had caused them to become what you would call a bit squiffy.

"Draco! I haven't seen you outside of that dark work room in that manor of yours for ages! What's possessed you to come out into the sunlight?" Ron said, his cheeks red from the alcohol.

"Seriously, I've been wondering, are you a vampire?" Harry added.

Draco rolled his eyes. "Very funny, Potter."

"But seriously, though, it's not fun being a recluse. You should come out, hang with us more often, you know?"

"Well, it has its benefits," Draco said with a small smile creeping onto his face. "For starters, I don't have to hang out with you losers."

"He makes me feel so special inside," Ron said in a tearful tone, one hand over his heart and one hand dramatically flung into the air. Harry sniggered at his theatrics.

"So, where's Lavender?" Draco changed the subject as the large group of Weasleys-Potters-Malfoys stepped out into the courtyard behind the Leaky Cauldron, the taller members of the group ducking to avoid hitting their heads on the doorframe.

"Taking after the brood, Ginny's dropped her two twins back at our's," Ron replied as he tapped the bricks in the correct sequence to open the archway to Diagon Alley. The bricks rearranged themselves in a series of clunks until the archway was there, the sign _Diagon Alley_ written above it.

"Hey, no running off now," Draco's commanding voice rang out, and the three youngsters who'd been excitedly bounding off to _Quality Quidditch Supplies_ to ogle the newest brooms slunk back to the group of parents.

"I wish I held that much power," Ron sighed. "How do you do it, Malfoy?"

"For one, I'm not an annoying redhead Weasley," Draco replied, cheerfully. "Now come on, you lot. Let's get your school robes. First years aren't even allowed brooms, remember?"

"But I've got one," Astera complained as the large group began to move through the marketplace. "Why can't I bring that to school?"

"Rules," Hermione laughed, as she and Ginny headed off to Flourish and Blott's.

"I _hate_ rules," Astera grumbled.

The pouting look on her face was soon remedied when they reached Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions, and at seeing the Hogwarts emblem on the plain black robes, the young girl's excitement was reignited and she bounded off inside the shop, a childish grin on her face.

"Well, well, is it that time already?" the aging witch said with a smile as she looked down on Astera's glowing face. "Hogwarts, right?" Astera nodded. "Come on, then. I'll be with you in a minute," she called back to Harry and Ron, who had just entered the shop with their equally as excited daughters.

Astera bounded after the witch with uncontainable excitement, leaving her father to slowly walk in, so that by the time that Draco reached the fitting room, Astera was already in the famed Hogwarts robes, an ear-splitting grin on her face. The old witch was currently making the suitable measurements and readjustments to her robes, and Astera grinned even wider at seeing her father come in after her.

Seeing his tiny little daughter in those giant robes, too big for her, the father thought, much too big, made Draco's heart ache, for he knew that this meant that his pretending would no longer ever be valid: Astera was growing up, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.

"Dad! How do I look?" she asked excitedly.

Draco smiled, pushing away the pain in his heart as he looked upon his daughter. "Short."

"Oh, sod off," she complained, smiling.

"There you are, now," Madam Malkin said as she pulled the robes from Astera. "All done. I'll be making the readjustments, now, come back in twenty minutes or so and they'll be done: I've got other customers."

"Alright, well, we can go get your school supplies while we wait, then."

As Draco led Astera down the hallway back to Diagon Alley, they were almost knocked over by an excitable Izzy. "Dad, hurry up! Oh, hi, Ast, yay, I'm so exciteeeeeed!" Izzy sang as she bounded past.

"We'll meet you lot at Flourish and Blotts," Draco said to Harry and Ron as they passed. "Saves time for us having to wait for the robes."

A few minute later Astera was bounding into Ollivander's, her excitement having reached fever pitch—she was doing quite a lot of bounding today, Draco thought with a chuckle—as Draco came in behind her. The whirlwind of excitement burst into the shop, causing a pile of dust to burst into the air. This particular fact made Draco sneeze more than he really had to.

"Good afternoon," a mysterious voice came from the darkness of the shop. "Astera and Draco Malfoy, isn't it? I never thought I'd ever see another Malfoy walk the floors of this shop again."

The old wandmaker's words made Draco shiver, and it was all he could do to stop himself from marching over to the aging wizard and make him swear on his life never to tell his tweenage daughter about his past misdoings.

The young man would fight tooth and nail to make sure that Astera never found out about the terrible person he'd become in sixth year, the terrible person he had been. He would make sure that his young daughter never hated him. Ever.

Thankfully, the girl was too full of excitement and awe at the shop and the mysterious voice to worry about what the old man was saying, and she grinned, bounding through the shop. "Hello Mr. Ollivander! Good morning!" she called out, hoping to get the old man to come out so she could see how he looked, and if the man looked as mysterious and whimsical as his voice sounded.

"So like your father, I see… hmm… try this. Elm wood, dragon heartstring core, 11 inches. Unbending flexibility." The old man came out from behind the stacks of wands, and Astera was so busy studying the old man in complete awe that she didn't notice the wand being held out to her in its ornate box.

"Ast? Ast, your wand."

"Huh?" Astera blinked.

"Take the wand, you silly little girl," Draco laughed.

Astera smiled sheepishly and took the wand.

"Give it a wave," the whimsical voice said.

Astera waved the wand and the dust in the shop became a whirlwind, hitting Draco in the face, causing him to sneeze again and again.

"Oh! Sorry, Dad, Mr. Ollivander," Astera said. "I guess that's not for me."

"Right you are, young lady," Ollivander said. "You are much like your mother, as well… try this. Hornbeam wood, unicorn tail hair core, 12 and three quarters of an inch, unbending flexibility."

Again the dust in the shop became a whirlwind, and Draco was overcome by sneezing again. He was going to have dust trauma by the end of today, the young man thought tiredly.

"But of course, you are a combination of both, and your own unique personality and spirit lies within your heart. So here, try this one. Beech wood with a phoenix feather core, 13 inches in length, and unbending flexibility."

Astera felt an affinity to the wand as soon as she set her eyes upon it, so it came as no surprise to her—though it caused quite the excitement in her—when she grabbed hold of it, gave it a wave, and a golden stream of sparkles surrounded her body then flew away, hovering in midair for a moment before it all disappeared.

"Ah, wonderful! Third time's a charm, I must say," Ollivander said, smiling. Astera was given the box encasing the wand to hold as Draco paid and the pair waltzed out the shop.

"That was lucky," Draco said. "I heard of one boy who went through all the wands in the shop, and then when they discovered which one was for him, they found that one of his attempts had set fire to his wand and he had to go home."

Astera's eyes grew wide with shock. "Really?"

"No, you little titch," Draco laughed, ruffling her black curls.

The father and daughter went through the shops, the excitedness never leaving Astera as she bounded from one shop to another. It was all Draco could do to keep track of the little whirlwind. After getting everything the young girl needed, they went back to Madam Malkin's to get Astera's robes.

Finally, they were done with their supply shopping, and the two headed to Flourish and Blotts to get their books and meet up with the others. Laden with packages, the young Malfoy's excitement was starting to wane when she saw her two best friends, and her excitement was immediately rekindled.

"Dad, can we go to the Magical Menagerie now?" Astera pestered as the pair ambled down the street to the bookshop.

"After," was all Draco said in reply as he led the youngster inside the bookshop. "Now, let's get your books and meet up with everyone."

Astera sighed. "Fineeeeeeeeee." The girl bounded off to gather the books she needed.

After much pestering and paying later, the large party was off to the menagerie. While Tris had her heart set on an owl ("Why do you need an owl? You've got Hedwig and her adorable little children."), while Izzy and Astera both didn't know what they wanted yet ("See, this is why you two are absolutely impossible.")

It took Astera a grand total of exactly seven seconds—and yes, _someone_ counted—to decide which little fluffy animal companion she wanted. As the trio bounded into the shop, a tiny whirlwind of black fur bounded onto Astera, racing up her arm and settling itself onto her shoulder. This little whirlwind was a little black kitten with large, bluish-silver eyes. Astera wasted no time in making her choice. The mischief making kitten and the mischief making girl were a match made in heaven.

"Oh, dear! Shadevine, come here _right this second!_ Oh, I'm so sorry, Shadevine's such a bother," A harried looking woman rushed over to pluck the little kitten away, who had no intention of obeying the woman. Mewing, it bounded into Astera's arms, and she cradled the little kitten, grinning.

"Can I have this one, Dad?" she said excitedly.

"What, this little titch? Tiny like you, eh?"

"Dad!"

"Alright, alright, you can have her," Draco laughed.

"The two of you are going to make quite a lot of trouble, aren't you," Hermione said, coming over with a smile on her face.

With a wide grin and a wink at her mother, Astera turned back to the woman. "How much?"

The woman eyed the kitten warily, as if it was about to turn into some feral monster. "I'm not sure if you want that one. It tried to tear someone's hair off before." _And kind of succeeded,_ she added to herself privately.

Astera grinned. "I don't think that's a problem. How much?"

"Five Galleons," the woman said. "I'll throw in a bag of cat food and a cage to get that _thing_ off my hands. No returns. At all."

Astera cuddled the adorable kitten as Draco paid, while Tris got a silvery screech owl named Artemis and Izzy cuddled the equally as adorable bunny rabbit that she'd promptly named Hestia, which the bunny seemed to approve of.

"Hey, look over there!" Astera said, pointing over across the other end of the large shop to where a handsome young boy stood with his parents, rather awkwardly standing with his parents. All three had an element of surprise and awe about them, as if they were completely bemused by everything around them.

"Muggles," Izzy laughed amusedly.

"He looks like he'll be in our year, maybe he'll be in the same House as us. He seems cool," Astera remarked.

"He looks strange. And weird. He's all pale with like jet black hair and stuff," Tris countered.

"What's wrong with being pale and having black hair?" Astera replied, feigning offence.

Tris turned bright red. "Nothing! Your skin and hair, it's lovely!"

The trio were consumed by fits of laughter for a bit, until the mirth in them finally died down.

"I'm going to go introduce myself to him," Astera announced, and charged over to the boy with her new cat.

"Hi! Are you a Muggle?"

The boy blinked in confusion. "A what?"

"Cool! I've almost never seen Muggles down Diagon Alley before, then again, we never come around this time, that's when all the Muggles come because of school supplies and such, right? Anyway, I'm Astera, Astera Malfoy. Nice to meet you! You seem cool. Oh, and over there, those are my best friends Izzy Weasley and Tris Potter. Tris got an owl, even though she already has some: well they're her parents', but same thing. You're new at Hogwarts, right? What's your name?" Astera said at lightning speed, eyes bright.

The boy blinked again, trying to process everything the confidant girl had just said at lightning speed. Though a rather confidant and witty boy himself, this girl surpassed anyone he'd ever known and anything he'd ever heard. Behind him his parents chuckled at this girl, and the power she held to make their charming and clever son speechless—no small feat.

"Yeah," he merely managed with an embarrassed grin. "I'm Kel Maldon," he added in response to the girl's question.

"Cool! Have you got your wand yet?"

"Um, no."

"Ah. Good luck, then. My dad told me about this boy who went through all the wands in the shop, and then when they discovered which one was for him, they found that one of his attempts had set fire to his wand and he had to go home."

"Oh." The boy seemed slightly scared now at the prospect of getting a wand. What if he didn't get one and never got to go to this epic magical school?

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get one fine. I got mine on my third try. Anyway, see you at school, I guess. My parents and my friends' parents are probably going now. It was nice meeting you! Bye!" The girl ran off, waving back at the boy, leaving him reeling with bewilderment.

The group slowly ambled back to the archway outside back in Diagon Alley, their money pouches considerably lighter than before.

"Now, Shadevine, I'm going to call you Shade for short, alright?" Astera said. The kitten mewed its approval, and Astera grinned. "Alrighty then!"

"Can we go home now?" Draco said, between sneezes.

Hermione laughed. "Alright then. Let's hope you don't sneeze all your papers away."

As a matter of fact, Draco did have quite a problem with his papers getting blown away by his bouts of sneezing that night, but even as he cursed Ollivanders for his stupid dusty run-down shop, a smile was on his face. He'd made his little girl happy. And that was worth it.

No matter how much trouble it caused for him

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **A/N: Well, that was fun.**

 **Anyway, as I said, this chapter was only like filler, introduction to the characters and whatnot, etc. It may seem like any other Hogwarts fanfiction out there, but it's not! It only gets better from here, trust me :)**

 **(To be honest, I really didn't enjoy writing this chapter that much. Nor the outline for it. I actually researched accurate wand woods for my characters (hooray!) because I have no life. However, the beginning of the third chapter….)**

 **Sorry if I got any British spellings wrong or any of the slang and stuff. I'm American. Not British.**

 **I have this whole story already written out, but the fact that I will write a sequel rests on your shoulders… review! Give me incentive! You can do it if you're a guest, you know… it doesn't have to be long. just a one or two word review makes authors so happy.**

 **Next Chapter: The Hogwarts Express, the Sorting, and the making of some new friends!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Child of Night: The Whispers**

 **Chapter Two**

"Where's Izzy?" Astera asked as the Malfoy family arrived through the wall of 9 and three quarters. "She said they'd be early!"

Hermione laughed, holding Anza's hand as the young girl grinned at her side. "Weasleys are never early, darling."

"Actually, they're always late," Draco added.

"We're not," Ginny suddenly appeared through the crowds, holding Tris' hand.

"You're not a Weasley anymore, you're a Potter, Gin," Harry joked as he sidled up by his wife.

"Mom, let me go! I'm not five anymore!" Tris complained happily. "Hi Ast! Where's Iz?"

"No idea," Astera laughed.

As if on cue, the Weasley family burst through the barrier, sporting seven excited youngsters and two harried-looking parents.

"Sorry we're late, Thea couldn't find Pinky," Ron said, referring to the pink stuffed bunny rabbit that six-year-old Thea took with her wherever she went. True to his word, the little girl was clutching the stuffed bunny to her chest, cuddling the poor bunny with a vengeance.

"Ast, Tris! There you are!" Iz gleefully burst through the crowds over to them, and the three girls got together in a gaggle of laughter and flailing limbs at the tickling fight that had begun upon the third member's arrival.

"Alright, girls, time to go," Draco said amusedly.

"Off to Hogwarts!" the trio cheered, grabbing their trunks and respective pets and clambering onto the train.

"Don't get in detention during your first week!" Hermione called to them as they disappeared around the corner.

"No promises!" Astera called back with a cheeky tone in her voice.

The trio of girls found an empty compartment and settled in, Artemis hooting from her cage on the racks above. Shade curled up in Astera's lap, mewing. The young girl absentmindedly stroked the kitten as she and her best friends talked excitedly about Hogwarts.

As the train set off with a puff of steam and smoke, the girls waved to the large group of parents and younger siblings still gathered on the platform, until the platform faded into the distance and the parents were merely faraway dots

"We'll be in Gryffindor for sure," Izzy said as they chatted.

"With parents like ours, what could go wrong?" Tris agreed. "Actually, oh... well." She glanced over at Astera, who shrugged.

"It won't be that bad, I guess. Not every Slytherin is evil, and not every Gryffindor is brave."

"Right you are, my philosophical friend," Izzy laughed. "However, if you were to end up a snake under the lake, I'm not sure I'd like to visit you in your hissy little common room."

Astera laughed. "I mean, your dad almost got into Slytherin, Tris."

"True."

"I wonder if it smells like fish down there," Izzy wondered.

"Hey, what would happen if someone down there was allergic to seafood?" Tris wondered.

"Everyone down there probably has a hobby of fishing, and they're all besties with the Giant Squid. See, they aren't evil, but the Giant Squid magicks them into evil masterminds, except for some of them who can resist his magic," Astera said, making mysterious gestures with her hand as she explained her theory.

The girls continued to ponder upon these different theories, and were constantly amused by the random kids that would walk past their compartment and do a double take when they realized who was sitting inside: the three eldest children of some of the most famous wizards and witches around.

When the trolley came around, Izzy made the mistake of getting Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans and popping a brown one into her mouth.

"Chocolate!" she exclaimed, popping it down.

"Careful, it might be—"

Izzy choked, her mouth suddenly dry. Astera grimly handed her one of the water bottles she'd packed and Izzy downed the water, then ate a Chocolate Frog to soothe the terrible taste in her mouth.

"Poop," Izzy finished.

The other two burst into hysterical laughter.

"It's not funny," Izzy complained, but a smile pulled at her lips and soon she was rolling around on the floor with laughter.

Their mirth was suddenly cut off by the opening of the door, where a tearful little girl stood, shaking with terror.

"I-I've got a message from some kids up the aisle," she squeaked. The girls furrowed their brows in confusement, then urged the girl to continue. "T-they said that if a-any one of you three b-blood traitors s-set one foot in Hogwarts they'll kill you!"

With that final terrible exclamation, the girl ran out the door, bawling.

"Oh that's ridiculous!" Astera exclaimed after a minute of silence. "We can't have made enemies already!"

"Let it go, we'll figure this out later," Izzy said soothingly.

"I'm going to go find them," Astera said determinedly. "Then we'll know what's coming."

"Izzy's right—for once—you really shouldn't go looking for trouble," Tris said. "We already know why. According to them we're blood traitors. Izzy's a _Weasley,_ I'm the daughter of a Weasley and _Harry Potter,_ and you're the daughter of a Muggleborn and a reformed _Death Eater."_

Astera glared defiantly for a moment, than relented with a sigh. "Fine."

/\/\/\

The train ride had flown by and soon the train was arriving at its destination. The girls hurriedly changed into their robes, leaving a very disgruntled Shade to sit on the seat watching the girls struggle into their Hogwarts robes. Astera and Izzy were reluctant to leave their pets on the train, all by themselves, but they eventually left the two pets in the compartment where they would be magicked away to the girls' dormitories.

"Firs' years this way," a deep, booming voice that the three girls recognized and loved was coming from the platform. They raced out to greet their half-giant friend, and were wrapped into a big, warm, powerful hug.

"Ribs," Izzy complained, and the three girls were let go by a beaming Hagrid.

"'Allo to you lot," Hagrid said cheerfully as they went down to the series of boats. "How yer families doin'?" He continued to ask questions about their family until the gaggle of mostly confused first years reached the boats. "Right, four to a boat now," he called out. The trio of best friends got into a boat together along with a small blonde girl who smiled shyly at the rambunctious trio.

They chatted happily as the magical boats set off, until Astera let out a gasp of awe. "Wow," she breathed.

"They really weren't exaggerating, this place is bloody massive!" Izzy cheered.

The boats soon entered the underground of the castle and the first years clambered out of the boats, some of them slightly wet from the spray of the lake—it'd been a windy evening. They were led down a series of corridors and most were too awed by the sheer massiveness and ancientness of the great castle of Hogwarts to notice the Hogwarts ghosts floating through walls and going through the ceiling. Excited whispers could be heard from the large group: the first years were the product of the major baby boom about nine months after the Second War, when too much celebrating had led to a lot of weddings to prevent a lot of illegitimate babies.

Once they arrived at their destination right outside the Great Hall, they continued to chat amongst themselves.

"I wonder what's going to happen," one of the Muggleborns said.

"The Sorting shall commence," Astera replied with a mysterious tone in her voice

"But how does the Sorting even work?" someone asked. The method of the Sorting was a closely guarded secret of Hogwarts, one that everyone seemed to know not to tell their children and younger siblings about.

"I heard we'll have to fight the Giant Squid," someone said.

Tris rolled her eyes. "Don't be stupid, that's impossible."

"Well, whatever it is, it'll have to be hard enough to root out all the filthy Mudbloods and blood traitors in here," a voice said. A collective gasp ran throughout the room at the derogatory word. Only the most sheltered half-bloods and purebloods, as well as the Muggleborns of course, were utterly confused by this reaction.

One boy with a chiseled, tanned face and blackish brown hair, seemingly realizing that whatever word that this boy had said was quite bad, pounced upon the boy in a fight. Tris had to hold her two best friends back from joining in the fray.

The chiseled, tanned boy had received quite a few bruises but obviously had the upper hand in the fight, as the boy who had said the filthy word had a broken nose and bleeding lip.

"WHAT in the name of Merlin, is going on here?" a loud, angry voice cut through the commotion. Tris was shocked into letting her two struggling friends go and surprised at the sudden release, they stumbled a few steps then face planted onto the floor.

The angry face of Professor McGonagall glared down upon the crowd of first years. "I said, what is going on? You haven't even been Sorted and you're already fighting! I should dock house points from you but I can't!"

"Ma'am, he—" Astera spoke, pointing towards the offending boy. "—said that whatever the Sorting was, it should be hard enough to r-root out M-Mudbloods," it was with great difficulty that she got the word out of her mouth.

The look on the woman's face become hard with contained rage, and Astera almost felt sorry for the boy who would be on the other side of this woman's wrath.

"Ma'am, it was just a word," one girl tried.

"Just a _word?!"_ Izzy's face was set with rage. "How _dare_ —" Her voice was lost in the cacophony of voices that had risen amongst the first years, who all seemed to be taking sides in this argument.

Angry and exasperated, Professor McGonagall decided just to punish all of them. "SILENCE!" her raised voice rang throughout the room and the children instantly quieted at her angry voice. "Detention, all of you! Tomorrow after dinner. And you two, your names?" She gestured towards the two fighting boys.

"Jordan Hopkins," the chiseled and tanned boy quickly offered.

"And you?" Professor McGonagall turned on the other boy, her expression hardening tenfold.

"Kyzer Murton," the boy said sullenly.

"Detention, the two of you, the first three evenings after dinner," she said. "Alright then. Well, time for a proper introduction. I am Professor McGonagall. Shortly you will be taken into the Great Hall where the other students are seated, and you will be sorted into your houses. Everyone should take this opportunity to make themselves look presentable, as you only get one chance at a first impression." The children quickly struggled to straighten their robes and flatten their hair (while Murton attempted to staunch the bleeding from his lip and make his broken nose look a bit less, well, broken), before the stern-looking woman, Professor McGonagall, threw open the doors and led the line of children through the crowded Great Hall.

Astera caught the eye of the boy she'd met at the Magical Menagerie the other day, Kel Maldon, she remembered. She sidled up to him and grinned. "Hi."

"Hey," he replied, grinning back in reply. While he'd been completely confused the day they'd met, he seemed to have—mostly—come to terms with the magical world in apparent existence and was no longer as bewildered anymore.

They weren't able to say much more than that, however, as the hat burst into its yearly song. After much confusement by the Muggleborn first years, the song ended, and the sorting commenced.

"Now, each of you will come forward as I call your name and the hat will sort you into your houses," McGonagall called out to them. From nowhere a scroll appeared and she started to read names.

As she waited, she found two small groups of older students in Ravenclaw and Slytherin glaring at her. No doubt these were the kids that had sent the message down the aisle. Astera made a mental note to seek them out later and give them a little talking to, no matter what Izzy and Tris said.

Astera felt a little pang of glee when both 'Hopkins, Jordan' and 'Maldon, Kelder' were sorted into the red house of Gryffindor, where quite a few redheaded and freckled faces sat. As soon as Kel had been sorted, Astera heard her name being called. "Malfoy, Astera!"

Ignoring the whispers at hearing the surname of one of the vanquishers of the Dark Lord being said, the confidant young girl walked up to the hat and placed it upon her head. For a moment there was nothing but darkness inside the hat, but then…

" _Ah, yet another Malfoy, I see. I never thought I'd see another Malfoy mind after what became of the last,"_ a small voice came. Astera got defensive at this. Yeah, when he was little he'd been a bit of a bully, so what?

Of course, she couldn't know the hat's true meaning.

" _Yeah, well, I'm here aren't I?"_ she bit back with a bit of a cocky tone to her thoughts.

The hat seemed to chuckle. " _Definitely a Malfoy with all that cheek. I ought to put you in Slytherin, where the Malfoys feel at home…"_

" _No, no!"_ Astera quickly replied. Despite her playful jokes on the train, the girl knew that her two best friends would be in Gryffindor for sure, and she most definitely didn't want to be alone in Slytherin.

Besides, she would absolutely _hate_ being under the lake.

" _Then where shall I put you?"_ the Hat said with a thoughtful tone. " _Hufflepuff? No, you're not patient enough for that."_

" _I resent that,"_ Astera interrupted, rather impatiently.

" _Ravenclaw… yes, you are quite bright and would fit quite well there, but your mother's qualities run rampant inside of you…. wait, what is that?"_ The hat seemed utterly and completely confused.

" _What?"_ Astera asked curiously. " _What is it?"_

" _That affinity… towards… that heritage… oh, I see. What a shame that is, but how interesting… I don't get a lot of your kind. Soon you will have discovered what it is, little one. Now run along, because I think you'd fit best in…"_

"GRYFFINDOR!" came the hat's shout.

With an enormous smile Astera took off the hat and set it back on the stool, then bounded towards the Gryffindor table amongst deafening cheers from that particular table. With a small sigh she pushed away the questions popping up in her head at what the Hat had said, resolving to find out at a later time. She sat down in an empty space by Heather and Miranda Weasley, the close cousins who were the respective daughters of Fred and George.

"Hello, Ast," Heather said amusedly. "You sure seem excited."

Astera gave them a grin. "I am!"

They continued to watch the Sorting, as 'Murton, Kyzer' was sorted into Ravenclaw.

"The bloody git," Astera grumbled as he sat down at the half-heartedly cheering table, for the Ravenclaws reasoned that with his injuries, presumably from a fight, the boy was going to lose his house quite a lot of points, which wasn't something the house was going to enjoy.

Next to face the hat was 'Potter, Tristina,' who sat on the stool for a full two and a half minutes before the hat shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"

A grinning Tris plopped down besides Astera. "See, I told you s—"

She was cut off by the call for the next person to come up. The duo watched as 'Redia, Kylie' was sorted into Slytherin and 'Sanders, Thomas' and 'Stimpson, Edward' were sorted into Gryffindor before the name 'Weasley, Isabelle' was called. Their redhead friend sat on the stool for one minute and seventeen seconds—Astera had counted with bated breath as their friend sat upon the stool—before the hat made its verdict.

"GRYFFINDOR!" it shouted, and Izzy bounded over with a gleeful grin on her face as she sat down besides her best friends.

"Well, see, you're not in the hissy house are you now?" she cheered, jokingly patting Astera on the back.

They waited for three more Sortings before the Sorting was over, the hat taken from the stool and the both of them taken away by Professor McGonagall. Two other girls, Ily Jordan and Ashlynn Swann, had also been sorted into Gryffindor and were happily chatting down the table. An Edward Stimpson sat across the table from the trio of girls with Jordan Hopkins and Kel Maldon, the three of them getting along quite well.

"Aahh, this food is better than anything I've ever tasted," Izzy sighed with content.

Astera sniggered. "Iz, that's exactly what you've said every time we go to the Burrow."

"Well it's true," the redhead countered with a cheeky grin. "Grandma Weasley's cooking gets better every time she cooks."

"Wait until Halloween," Tris said with a smile. "Dad won't stop going on about how much he misses the food at the Halloween Feast."

Their cheerful conversation continued as they ate, and soon their stomachs were bulging and Dumbledore was standing up to make his yearly welcome speech. Afterwards they sang the school song in a cacophony of noise, Astera and Izzy deigning to sing it to a very slow, off-key version of "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" while Tris laughed herself silly at their antics.

The children were finally given leave to go to their respective common rooms and the first years were led up a series of stairs and winding corridors to the entrance to Gryffindor Tower.

"Password?" asked the Fat Lady.

"Venomous Tentacula," the prefect said, and the portrait swung open to reveal the Gryffindor common room. The children all pushed past the prefect to get inside, leaving the very disgruntled fifth year to stumble in after them.

Everyone tumbled to where they needed to be and eventually the trio found a dormitory door marked "First Year Girls." They pushed inside and found themselves in a room with five four-poster beds with red and gold draperies. Their trunks had been magicked up into the dormitory, as well as their respective pets—besides Artemis, who had flown off to the Owlery.

Astera rushed over to her kitten's side to find her slurping at a bowl of milk. They were soon followed in by Ily and Ashlynn, who were still chatting up a storm.

The girls changed into their pajamas and got ready for bed, some of them organizing and unpacking as well. Astera pulled a lightly dozing Shade into the crook of her arm, and she clambered into bed.

"Night, guys," she said, and as the coziness of the bed and the full stomach she had made her even more tired than she ought to have been, the often insomniac young girl fell into a deep sleep as soon as she had settled into her blankets.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **Not quite as long as I planned, but I did cut out what's going to be the beginning scene of the next chapter. The transition would be better that way, I think.**

 **Look out for the next chapter coming soon, the excitement starts here :)**

 **And as always, review!**

 **(Chapters are now biweekly.)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Yep, I added Thomas Sanders XD**

 **And great timing for that review, because PJO comes in right at the beginning here!**

 **Thank you all for your reviews. It really helps a writer :)\**

 **Even though,** _WE WILL NEVER BE SATISFIEDDDDD_

 **Child of Night: The Whispers**

 **Chapter Three**

 _Whispers… whispers in the dark…_

 _She stumbled on uneven, pounding ground, was there some kind of earthquake happening? What was happening?_

 _She didn't know what was happening._

 _Confusion and darkness addled her mind as she stumbled on the ground. She didn't know where she was, where she was going… all she knew was that she had to keep moving._

 _Boom… boom… boom… something was pounding deep in the earth beneath her, permeating the air around her._

 _Boom, boom, boom, boom… the pounding was quicker now, and now she was running, running, terror filled her every nerve. Red mist surrounded her and she could barely see a thing._

 _Dark figures stumbled and ran around her, going in the same direction as her, but some of them didn't seem to be human. The shapes weren't right. They were misshapen, stumbling, crawling, flying, cackling filled the air around her…_

 _She covered her ears, the air seemed to burn her skin. Her eyes watered with both tears and from the apparent acid that filled the air, hung low in the red mist that covered them all…_

 _And suddenly it was all gone. The creatures, the mist, the darkness._

 _The air was still tinted red, from the light of the fires raging across the landscape, the rivers of liquid fire (how did that even work?) carving through…._

 _Through…_

 _Was that skin?_

 _The soft, purplish landscape seemed to beat with every other breath, veins of hot gold running through under the purple-red surface. And the pounding… what had drawn her to walk forward…_

 _A beating, blood red heart lay under the surface of the skin covering. Different colored veins ran through it: black, cloudy white, red, gold, transparent…_

 _Sometimes veins would burst and a spray of liquid permeated the air, falling down to the skin-ground, and sizzling away._

 _It was a terrifying sight to behold._

 _The air began to shimmer, golden and silver and copper particles of dust collapsing in on each other right above the pounding heart._

 _Boom… boom… boom…_

 _She stumbled backwards, but seemed to be walking in place, the figure seemed to be pulling her towards it with some force of powerful gravity._

" _No!" she tried to scream, but all that came out was a small, hoarse whisper._

 _The figure began to solidify into a humanoid shape, except that this humanoid was more terrifying than anything she'd ever seen._

 _The feet began to materialize first, drawing their power from the glowing heart beneath it. The humanoid was giant, judging from its feet, clad in void-black iron boots the size of coffins. The very material seemed to draw her towards it with a strange, evil gravity, and she stumbled forward a step or two before stopping herself._

 _Next came the legs, slowly materialising, clad in a black kilt made of the bones and skulls of countless creatures. Below the bottom of the kilt rippling purple muscle with veins, the same color as the veins beneath her where she stood, rippled through the skin and flesh._

 _The chestplate the figure wore was a prison, and as soon as it materialised she felt the gravity she felt increase tenfold, and she stumbled again, falling to her knees and digging her nails into the pounding flesh beneath her to stop herself from being sucked into oblivion._

 _And then came the head. It was void, a swirling black whirlpool that made it so that she could barely breathe, barely hold on to her precious life holds in the flesh that served as ground beneath her and the Void of Chaos._

 _She screamed as there was the booming magnified, the creature in front of her now fully formed. She'd barely even studied the subject of the Greek myths before, but she knew where she was by some strange sixth sense inside of her._

Tartarus.

 _That hellish, fabled pit where monsters and Titans and giants went when killed by heroes. The Greek embodiment of hell._

 _She shivered with fear at the pure malevolence the primordial radiated in waves, trembling with sheer terror._

" _Hello, little one," the figure boomed. "Be honored that you have been born to one of the only two in this world that can possible even slightly rival my power. How fitting, that you will soon stand before me, helpless. Powerless to resist. I am Tartarus. There is_ nothing _you can do against me. Be honored that I do not smite you now, little one, and instead bide my time. Be honored that I, the great and almighty Tartarus, have decided to give you the time of day."_

 _She didn't know what was happening. She was confused, scared, she didn't know who she was or anything but the dim thought that she was in Tartarus. The pure power of the pit reduced her to this, unable to think or move, unable to do anything but shiver in fear._

 _And suddenly she was immersed in liquid fire, screaming, and she could hear a faint, rattling, hissing whisper._

" _Sister…"_

"AST GET YOUR LAZY ARSE OUT OF BED!" Izzy sang (was that something to be sung? Astera wasn't sure, but Izzy's voice definitely held a musical note to it), throwing the red and gold curtains back with a grand flourish and jumping upon the sleeping figure clad in her blankets.

Astera was painfully ashamed to say that yes, she had screamed. Very loudly, in fact.

Though maybe that was a lingering effect of the nightmare she'd woken up from.

Panicked, both from the redhead nightmare on top of her and the lingering effects of fear and pain and echoing in her ears from the dream, Astera screamed, _very loudly_ , causing probably all of Gryffindor Tower to wake up.

Surprised by the odd reaction to her morning prank, Izzy quickly rolled off of Astera and blinked at her in shock. "Ast, what's wrong?"

"One, language, Iz. Two, she's probably surprised you jumped on her at six a.m in the morning," came Tris' voice, muffled by her pillow, which she was holding over her face to block out the Scottish sunlight streaming in through the open window.

"What did I say?" Izzy complained.

"Arse."

"Hey!"

"I meant—"

"I know," Izzy sniggered. "Anyway—Merlin, Ast, what's wrong? I really didn't scare you that much, did I?"

Astera was now sitting straight up in bed, not a hint of tiredness to her pale and sweaty face. The girl's already pale skin had turned paper-white with sheer terror, her forehead and back covered in rivulets of cold sweat. She shivered involuntarily, her mind still caught in the terrifying dream.

"I-I-It—" she stuttered, but she couldn't seem to get anything else out.

"What, Ast?" Izzy said, growing increasingly more terrified with every second that passed. Ily and Ashlynn had already gone down to the common room to join the growing shower queue, so the trio of best-friends-since-babies were alone in their dormitory.

Astera's silence broke and she suddenly drew into herself, sobbing into her hands.

The two friends exchanged a concerned look then both rushed to their friend's side.

"I-I know i-it's stupid b-but I-I h-had this n-nightmare," she stuttered in fear. And why shouldn't she? She was eleven, and yes, many others had suffered much by that age already, but she hadn't, and she was scared, both from what the Hat had said to her and her dream the night before.

"What happened?" Tris asked in a gentle, soothing tone.

"What was it about?" Izzy asked, in the same voice.

For some strange reason unbeknownst to them, Astera had always been prone to fits of crying after nightmares. It was the strange life-like quality to any dream that Astera had, nightmare or not, that often had her in bouts of terror. Unlike any other child, who could soon learn to distinguish real life from dream, Astera had terrifyingly lifelike experiences in her dreams: she could taste food (albeit, that wasn't too terrifying), feel pain, speak, move of her own accord, and think logical thoughts from herself, not her dream self, without waking up.

Teeth chattering from a wave of icy cold and burning hot that had washed upon her since waking from the fiery river, Astera replied. "I-I was i-in this p-place, I have n-no idea w-what it is, b-but I know it's c-called Tartarus."

"What?" Izzy exclaimed. "That's weird….

Tris paled. "Dad used to mention that place in his old creepy bedtime stories…"

"I-I think Mum might've m-mentioned it before," Astera said.

"Tell us the whole story," Tris commanded, and still having an hour and a half to go until their first lesson, the girls settled in as Astera told them the tale, with frequent interjections from Izzy, and less frequent interjections from Tris.

"Wow," Izzy said when Astera was done with their tale. "I'm sure glad I woke you up at that precise moment."

Astera smiled weakly. "Yeah, me too."

/\/\/\

Later at breakfast, Astera eagerly looked up into the sky above to find Ella, the Malfoys' family owl, flying down with a letter for her. Glad as she may have been to finally go to Hogwarts, she had long dreaded the separation from her parents for months at a time. The three read their respective letters, resolving to go to the Owlery that evening to write a reply to their parents. Ella sipped from Astera's pumpkin juice, then flew back into the skies, back to Malfoy Manor.

The respective Heads of Houses were now going down their respective tables handing out schedules, and Astera, Izzy, and Tris were discussing the possibilities of their classes.

"I hope we have History of Magic, I need some more sleep," Astera yawned.

Izzy snickered. "No regrets."

Tris rolled her eyes. "I swear Iz, if you're going to do that every single morning…"

The evil glint in the redhead's eye caused the girl to trail off after that.

Professor McGonagall reached them and handed them their timetables with a small smile, then continued handing out the schedules to other students.

"Ast, you've been granted your wish!" Izzy exclaimed in surprise. "We've got History of Magic right after lunch."

"Ah, perfect," Astera grinned, looking over Izzy's shoulder at her timetable.

"Hey, you have your own!" Izzy complained fondly, batting Astera away.

"Oh, great, we've got Potions on Friday," Astera groaned after a few moments of silence.

"Way to ruin the best day of the week," Izzy agreed.

"Saturday is the best day of the week!" Astera argued.

"So, we've got Transfiguration first, then break, then Charms, then lunch, then another break, then History of Magic, then yet another break, then DADA," said Tris, pointedly ignoring her two best friends' antics.

The fact that Tris pronounced DADA as dada was, of course, totally not the cause for Izzy and Astera to both snigger at their friend.

Tris turned red.

"Sod off, both of you."

/\/\/\

"So, who's the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher this year?" Tris asked the other two as the trio headed down the corridor towards the DADA classroom.

"I have no idea," Izzy replied. "The seat was empty, though, at all the meals that we've had so far."

"Surely no professor would miss the welcoming feast?" Astera pondered, brows furrowed in deep thought.

Tris shrugged. "I guess we'll see."

"Hey, blood traitor," a sneering boy said. "I'm sad to see you haven't fallen off the Grand Staircase yet." Kyzer Murton's nose had been healed by Madam Pomfrey the previous evening, but there were still minor bruises on his face that the aging mediwitch had not deemed bad enough to be healed by magic.

"Shove off, Murton," Izzy growled, Tris grabbing both of her friends by the arm, should they deign to take matters into their own hands.

Astera glared at him. "When are you going to start making up intelligent insults instead of copying from well-known words? I thought you were supposed to be a _Ravenclaw,_ Murton."

Murton's mouth was open to retort when some girl shrieked, "He's coming!" The first years quickly moved against the wall in an orderly line.

The trio was up for a big surprise, though, for the shadowy figure that walked down the corridor towards the waiting line of students was none other than Remus Lupin, who was a close friend of all three's parents, and was therefore also known as 'Uncle Remus.'

"Uncle Remus!" the trio burst out with wide, matching grins.

The aging werewolf smiled at the girls and opened the door. "In," he said simply, and ushered the class inside the classroom.

The three rushed inside with looks of utter delight on their faces. This was better than anything they had expected, to be honest, the trio had been expecting some kind of old hag to be teaching them.

However, having the fact that their favored Uncle would be teaching them was quite a surprise, and a pleasant one as well. The three knew that the werewolf had taught DADA at third year back when their parents were in Hogwarts, but due to the intense hatred towards werewolves at the time, he had quit when the students had discovered his 'furry little problem,' and he knew it would be no time until the parents found out about it as well.

Remus clapped his hands together, bringing the chattering group of first years to silence with this. "Hello class! I am Professor Lupin, and I'll—obviously—be teaching you all Defence Against the Dark Arts. Now... who can tell me why it is important to learn about the dark arts and how to defend against them?"

The aging werewolf probed the class with questions similar to this for the rest of class, and by the end of class everyone had answered a question and shared their thoughts with the rest of the class.

"Alright, so, we will be starting on curses and countercurses this Wednesday in class," he said. "Before then, I would like you all to read up on them in your textbooks so that we can do a bit of practice instead of just theory, eh?" The class grinned at each other, happy at the prospect of doing spells instead of bookwork.

At that moment the bell rang, and the girls left ready for some free time before dinner began.

"It's so nice outside," Izzy sighed as Tris dragged them towards the library. "Tris, it's the first day here, why don't we catch some sun?"

"We have to go to homework," Tris said determinedly.

"We can do homework in the winter," Izzy cajoled.

"No, we're going outside during the winter," Astera argued, grinning. "I'm going to wreck you guys in a snowball fight, you know."

"Not likely," Izzy shot back with a grin.

Astera glared at her, then pounced on the redhead in a flurry of wild motion, the two girls giggling crazily as they ran down the hallway, chasing each other in a childish tickle fight.

Tris shook her head, sighing in amusement at her two best friends. "You two are going towards the library, you know," she called after them, laughter in her tone.

"I know, Tris," Astera called back, giggling as Izzy's long, nimble fingers found her weak spot. "Aaaah! Iz! Geroff me!" With another laugh, she pounced back.

Tris grinned and snuck up on the two, joining in with their attacks in a surprise three-sided battle.

The laughter of the three best friends echoed down the corridors of Hogwarts, and it was enough to bring a smile to anyone listening, to hear the laughter of three happy girls, innocent, and free from secrets and lies and tears.

/\/\/\

The girls had been in the common room after returning from the library for quite a while, but Astera just couldn't seem to focus on her DADA textbook. The girl was caught in a daydream about Quidditch when she was suddenly jolted back to reality by something hitting the back of her head.

"Ow!" she yelped. There was a small _thud_ as something bounced to the ground. Astera turned and glanced downwards to see the groaning rook of a chess set.

"Hey! Didn't you hear me call heads? Oh crap, your head's bleeding. Here, I'll take you to Madam Pomfrey."

Feeling very dizzy, Astera gave a thumbs up, knowing that if she nodded she'd probably pass out or something if she attempted to speak.

The sixth year boy supported her all the way down to the hospital wing.

"How did this happen?" the aging mediwitch asked.

"Exploding chess accident," the boy explained, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Be more careful next time. Now, help me get her settled onto one of these cots here."

Astera felt herself being lowered onto the hospital cot, and opened cloudy eyes to a bout of extreme dizziness, the back of her head throbbing. Madam Pomfrey bustled off to find the appropriate potions for her.

"Sorry about that," the sixth year sighed. "Name's Kel Holland. If there's anything I can do..."

The sixth year Gryffindor was torn between wanting to stay and help the young first year and going back to the common room to finish his dangerous, but extremely exciting chess match. Astera noticed this and gave the boy a smile and a thumbs up.

"No, it's okay, thanks though," Astera replied, hiding her amusement that there was a Kel both in sixth and first year, and she had met both of them. "You can probably go back to the common room, finish that game. It looked exciting."

Kel grinned. "Yeah, it was. You sure you don't need anything?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then. See you." The sixth year walked back to the common room, feeling quite guilty about the event that had happened to the young first year.

Madam Pomfrey proceeded to cast some spell on Astera, and soon the pain was gone, replaced by a pleasant warm tingling sensation that, when gone, left no sensation at all. The aging mediwitch then proceeded to cast a quick diagnostic spell on the first year in case of concussion, then gave her a potion for the lasting dizziness effect and cleared her to go.

"Alright then, no harm done, a bit of blood on your shirt there, may want to get that changed," Madam Pomfrey said after a moment.

Astera grinned and nodded, happy to be lucky enough to be released by the strict mediwitch so quickly. The young girl raced out of the hospital wing to bump into her two best friends, concerned looks on their faces.

"I'm fine," the young girl laughed before her friends could say anything. "Madam Pomfrey fixed me up all right."

The three girls chattered away down the corridors and within no time they were back at the common room, where Astera was greeted by loud applause from the table of sixth year boys. The red-faced girl rushed back up to the dormitory to change before coming back down to get started on homework.

It was much easier for Astera to focus on her homework that time, and by the time dinner rolled around the girls had finished at least one of their essays.

"Merlin, at least that's over," Izzy sighed as they rushed down to the Great Hall.

The chattering girls barely noticed the aging werewolf until he spoke, his trained eyes finding the faint pink line that was all that was left of the exploding chess incident. "Ast, you okay?"

Astera turned and nodded, grinning. "Yeah! Never better, Uncle Remus. Thanks though."

The professor smiled and nodded at her and her two friends, then headed on his way to continue his rounds.

Kel Holland, who had been watching from down the table, grinned at her and gave her a thumbs up. She had evidently not 'told on him,' and he respected that. Astera grinned back and returned the thumbs up gesture before turning back to her friends.

"He's the Quidditch captain, isn't he?" she asked.

"Yep, looks like you should try out, he likes you," Tris said.

Astera blinked. "What?"

"He said that you were super cool for a first year and wasn't bad to him about what happened," Izzy enlightened her.

Astera smiled, but gave a noncommittal shrug. "That's awesome, but he's not going to ignore that everyone's going to be better than me, you know."

"It would be awesome if you got on, though."

"I have to use a school broom, though, and my dad says they're crap," Astera sighed. "Oh well."

They turned back to their previous conversation, and soon after they were back in the common room finishing their homework before getting a good night's rest.

The nightmares didn't come again that night.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **A/N: Not that punctual of a chapter ending, but I thought I'd leave it at that.**

 **I'm really not good at keeping secrets in my stories…**

 **Next Chapter: A confrontation, a gathering of friends, and Quidditch tryouts. We also get to spend a bit of time with our favorite werewolf :)**


	4. Chapter 4

**Child of Night: the Whispers**

 **Chapter Four**

"So, Ast, Quidditch tryouts are next Wednesday, are you going?" Izzy asked the next morning at breakfast. The notice had been hung up on the board in Gryffindor Common Room that morning, and all three had seen it.

Astera shrugged. "Are you?"

Izzy shook her head. "Nope. Dan and Phil are the Beaters, and Uncle Fred and George taught them everything they knew. If I get on the team, I want to be a Beater, and there's no open position for Beater."

"You could challenge them for a spot," Astera said, a little bit edgy about going on her own.

Tris, who considered herself the 'queen of tact' (her own words), sighed. "We'll go with you, Ast."

Astera smiled. "Alright then."

There were two spots open on the team that year: Chaser and Seeker. As Astera usually played as either of the two, she was torn between which position she should try out for.

"Your moves are legendary, Ast," Tris pointed out the day before tryouts. "You're good at faking."

The usual Astera would've raised her eyebrows in a joking manner at her friend, and question her for saying that she was good at faking, but today Astera was edgy and stressed and nervous from the impending tryouts the following day.

"But your eyes are amazing too. You'd be good at spotting the Snitch," Izzy argued.

This argument between the two on which spot Astera would take had been going on for quite a while now, and Astera was getting tired of it.

"Guys, will you just stop it?" she groaned, shoving her plate away from her. She grabbed her things and stormed away.

Izzy, mid sentence, raised her eyebrows at the figure stomping away.

"Mental."

Tris snorted. "You're mental, Iz."

Izzy rolled her eyes. "Come on, let's follow her."

Tris shook her head. "She needs some alone time. We should give that to her, if only for a few minutes."

Izzy sighed. "Alright."

/\/\/\

Astera stormed down the corridors towards the doors leading out to the Greenhouses. Their first lesson of the day was Herbology, and it couldn't hurt to get there a little early.

She was going mad! Chaser, Seeker, Chaser, Seeker, and what with Izzy and Tris arguing every second of the day, she was going madder. Murton hadn't stopped being a prat, and the days were flying by. She wasn't going to get on the team... no... yes... no...

"Blood-traitor!" came the voice of Kyzer Murton.

Fuming, Astera spun on her heel and stalked towards the smirking Ravenclaw.

"Shut. Up." She shoved him lightly, not hard enough for him to fall over, but hard enough so that he stumbled a little bit before regaining his balance to see the young Gryffindor marching away to run into:

"Aspey," Murton greeted.

Astera froze. _Aspey..._ the name seemed strangely familiar. She shouldn't know this boy, at any rate, she was sure he wasn't on the Slytherin Quidditch team, and besides, he towered over her with a hint of facial hair as well, he must be at least in his fifth year.

"Murton," the boy, Aspey, replied without even glancing up at the first year Ravenclaw. "Hmm, blood-traitor... you didn't get our message, did you?" He stepped forward menacingly.

Regaining her bravado, Astera brought herself up to her full height and stared down—well, it was more her staring up, but oh well—the Slytherin boy. "Aspey, huh? You're going to kill me?" She raised her eyebrows in a skeptical manner. "I doubt that."

Aspey growled, a deep guttural noise deep in his throat that made Astera shiver. "You should watch your tongue, Malfoy," he growled. "And perhaps more than that, too..." He took another step towards her, but Astera stood her ground.

"You should watch yourself too, Aspey," she said. It had finally clicked... Aspey. She remembered her dad complaining about a Jaerene Aspey a few days ago; apparently he had been one of the remaining few that still supported the Dark Arts and their ways. "And watch your father while you're at it."

Aspey laughed, but it wasn't a happy laugh, it was a mocking, cold, evil laugh... it reminded her of the pit... Astera shook it away with a clenching of her fists, the pain flaring in her palms bring her back to reality. "My father... my father, yes, of course, your father was involved in dealings with him, wasn't he... well isn't that a shame, Astera Hermione Malfoy. Soon, you'll see what you're really dealing with here..."

"Ast!" Astera almost got whiplash from turning around so quickly. There were Izzy and Tris, and Astera could honestly say that she had never been more happy to see the two of them in her life.

"He bothering you?" came another familiar voice, and again Astera whipped her head around very quickly to see Kel Holland and his two best mates coming in from the doors to the school grounds.

Aspey laughed again. "Oh, little Gryffindors... they won't know, won't they?"

And with that, he stalked away.

/\/\/\

The day of Quidditch tryouts was upon them, and after much debate the previous day, Astera had decided upon the role of Seeker. There would be a lot less people trying out for the role, and according to her friends, the young girl could 'outperform any other' at the role.

Astera highly doubted that, but she was going to try out for Seeker anyway.

She headed out to the Quidditch Pitch after classes, her friends already having gone down to the Quidditch Pitch to get seats in the large stadium.

"Hey Tera," came the voice of Kel Holland. Astera turned and grinned to see the sixth year Gryffindor captain coming towards her. "You trying out?"

Astera nodded. "Yeah. Seeker. It sucks that I have to use the school brooms though," she sighed.

"Oh, no worries," the tall boy said. "You can use my broom during trials if you'd like."

Astera's face lit up. "Really? Brilliant! Thank you!"

The sixth year chuckled as the short girl hugged him fiercely. He ruffled her hair and withdrew himself. "Alright, well, you'd better get down to the pitch now," he said amusedly. "Good luck. I'll be keeping an eye out for you."

Astera nodded, grinning. "See you!"

The girl raced down to the pitch. Quidditch trials were held in a series of challenges. First was a test of flying agility, then a test of skill and practice separately for the Seekers and the Chasers. Afterwards, they were left to leave.

Astera outshone all the others by catching nine out of ten of the enchanted golf balls that were charmed to be Snitch-like for the trials within half a minute of her taking to the air. She'd only not caught the last one in the allotted time because of the fact that she had thought she'd seen something in the Forbidden Forest from her position in the air, and she'd gotten so distracted that the enchanted golf ball had gotten away.

Astera went back to the castle surrounded by her friends in good spirits. She felt much more confident now about her placement on the team, and her friends assured her that Kel Holland would very much be in the wrong should he not choose to select her for the role of Seeker on the Gryffindor team.

/\/\/\

The next morning, Izzy woke up her friends maybe half an hour earlier than usual.

"Merlin, Izzy! The sun isn't even up yet," Ily complained. "I need my beauty sleep!"

Normally Izzy would've snickered at this, but she was far too excited at the prospect of the results of the Gryffindor Quidditch team tryout results.

"C'mon guys! Let's go see the results!" Izzy dragged her two friends, still in their pajamas, downstairs.

"Iz! Are you serious, they probably haven't even put up the notice yet," Tris groaned.

Astera's anxiousness about getting on the Gryffindor team had rekindled overnight, it seemed, and she pulled back.

"Izzy, why don't we get dressed first," she said in a mock casual tone.

Izzy sighed. "Get it over with Ast. There's nothing to be afraid of, I swear you got on the team, okay?"

The redhead dragged her two reluctant friends over to the notice board, where a small notice was pinned up.

 _ **GRYFFINDOR QUIDDITCH TEAM TRYOUT RESULTS:**_

 **Chaser: Fiera Yiler**

 **Seeker: Astera Malfoy**

"Ast you made it! See, what did I tell you!" Izzy whooped.

Astera grinned. "This is amazing!" The three girls joined each other in a loud and boisterous victory dance, one that many groggy and tired Gryffindors would glare at them for that day.

/\/\/\

That afternoon after classes, the girls received a note from their DADA Professor.

 _Come to my quarters, third floor right corridor, by the painting of a wolf howling at the moon. You can bring your friends if you'd like._

Izzy grinned, shoving the small slip of parchment into her pocket. "Well, I mean, Tris you definitely want to invite Jordan."

Astera groaned. "Don't start on that again, Iz. Enough with the romantics guys."

Tris turned red. "Will everyone just shut up?

A few minutes later, the girls were going down to the third floor with the trio of boys in tow to meet their werewolf friend. Needless to say, the boys were rather nervous at the prospect of meeting their DADA professor this way.

"What if he gives us detention or something?" Edward asked a bit warily.

"Ed, there's no way he's going to give you detention," Izzy laughed. "Seriously. Uncle Remus is pretty cool."

"Yeah, he is," Tris confirmed.

Within no time the girls and their friends had reached the floor to ceiling painting of the wolf howling at the moon. Remus was waiting outside of the painting for them, and he smiled as he saw them.

"Girls!" he said happily as the three bounded into his arms for a hug. He ruffled their hair and withdrew himself. "And your friends," he said in a mockingly dangerous tone. Unfortunately, the boys were much too anxious to notice the joking tone in his voice and took a step backwards, slightly frightened.

Astera groaned. "My dad told you to do that, didn't he."

Remus chuckled. "As a matter of fact, he did."

Astera sighed. "I thought so. Oh well." She turned and grinned at the still frightened boys. "Don't worry guys. Uncle Remus is cool, he won't treat you all weird like my dad will."

Overall they had a nice time, the girls enjoying their time with their favored uncle, and the boys settling into a less frightened mood with the aging werewolf who had evidently been asked to take care of the three girls by three overprotective dads.

Actually, more like two overprotective dads and one overprotective prison warden.

The DADA professor had provided the six of them with tankards of fresh butterbeer, and the seven of them sipped from their drinks as they enjoyed their conversation. By the end of the conversation the boys were much less wary of the aging werewolf and accepted a handshake each from the aging professor after the girls rushed to him for a big hug.

The aging werewolf escorted them back to the common room, where the six Gryffindors clambered through the portrait after bidding farewell to Remus.

After several games of exploding snap and wizarding chess, as well as working on quite a bit of homework, the girls headed up to their dormitory. Tris decided to go hang with Ashlynn and Ily on the former girl's bed for a bit, gossiping away about crushes, boys, and the hottest new couples at school. Izzy and Astera listened on amusedly as they changed and got into bed, Astera pulling out a novel that she'd gotten earlier from the library and relaxing against the pillows she'd propped up against the wall. Soon the girls were all very fatigued, and Astera, who had been lost in a novel she'd gotten at the library earlier that day, was the last to turn in to sleep after putting out her Lumos charm. She snuggled into her blankets with Shade at her side, and enjoyed a well-deserved sleep.

The young girl was glad to say that no nightmares plagued her that night, and none would plague her for quite a while afterwards as well.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **A/N: A rather short chapter, but a lot happened and this is where I do want to end it.**

 **Hope you guys enjoyed it!**

 **(yes, I actually added Dan and Phil. Shame that their last name couldn't be Howlter.)**

 **Thank you for that, Allison!**

 **Next Chapter: A bit of a time skip, then the first Quidditch match! Also Astera and her friends plan a bit of a troublemaking on Halloween!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Child of Night: the Whispers**

 **Chapter Five**

The next few weeks at school passed by in a flash, and soon the month of October was upon them. Astera had received quite a few detentions for her cheek in classes (*cough cough* _Potions_ *cough cough*), but other than that they had had a peaceful first few weeks. The trio had made good friends with the three boys Edward Stimpson, Jordan Hopkins and Kel Maldon. Astera and Izzy mercilessly teased Tris about Jordan, for whom the raven-haired girl seemed to have a childish fancy for.

The two trios usually sat together at meals, but one weekend in October, the boys had gone off to play some kind of sport outside after a quick breakfast, leaving the girls behind. Izzy had scoffed at their offer to go outside with them, and dragged an eager Astera back to her seat.

"Why would anyone want to go outside right now? It's bloody freezing!" the young redhead had complained.

"I love the cold though," Astera countered.

"It's _freezing!"_

"Iz, let me go."

Izzy glared at her best friend, though there was a laughing twinkle in her blue eyes.

"Nope."

"You two knock it off," Tris laughed.

"It's October! It's not _that_ cold, Iz, besides, there's no snow for me to kick your butt with."

Before Izzy could retaliate, Tris cut in with a long sigh. "It really is unfair that the Halloween Ball is only open for fourth years and up."

Izzy and Astera exchanged knowing looks.

"Bet you want to ask Jordan to the Halloween Ball, Tris," Izzy teased.

"Yeah, and then you can even peck him on the cheek afterwards," Astera laughed.

Tris turned a deep shade of red. "Sod off!"

"Ooh, she really does like him, I don't think Tris has ever said 'sod off' ever before in her life," Izzy laughed.

"Right?!" Astera giggled.

Tris glared at them. "I was looking forwards to the dancing."

"Oh come off it, Tris, who wants to dance?" Izzy said.

"Not us," Astera sniggered.

"The food, though," Izzy sighed. "Dad's said that the food on that particular day is better than Grandma Weasley's cooking. But not to tell anyone he said that," she added quickly.

Tris and Izzy proceeded to continuously argue about the fact of which was better, and also complain about the fact that only fourth years and up were allowed in. Ily and Ashlynn came over and joined in the tirade of discussion, and that was when Astera annoyedly set down her fork and knife with a loud _clang._

"If you're truly _this_ excited about this, guys, why don't we just plan our own Halloween Bash in Gryffindor Tower?"

She had meant this as a joke, but her two best friends took it much more seriously than intended, and soon Astera found herself at the center of a plan to create the biggest underground party that Hogwarts had ever seen.

If it had been her plan to shut them up, it had certainly _not_ been effective, because now it was all that her friends seemed able to talk about. Soon the rest of Gryffindor Tower knew about it and half the table was twittering excitedly about the event, first, second, and third year, naturally.

Astera dropped her head into her hands and groaned. "What, in the name of Merlin, have I _done?"_

/\/\/\

"Guys, it was just a joke!" Astera complained as her two best friends chattered on about the plans for the Halloween Bash that Astera had jokingly suggested.

Izzy turned around to her with a determined look on her face. "Ast, if you don't want to do this, you don't have to join us in planning. But it would be amazing if you agreed... you're the best party planner we know."

Astera grinned, she couldn't help but feel lightened from the flattery.

"As long as there's no dancing involved... I'll do it."

Tris pouted. "But..."

"Tris, we're in first year," Izzy laughed. "Just because you have a crush doesn't mean that all of us have to have one."

Tris sighed. "Fine. Next year."

Astera sniggered. "I never thought I'd see the day when Tris Potter condoned rule-breaking."

"Only if it involves Jordan," Izzy winked.

Tris rolled her eyes, though she had turned slightly red at Izzy's words. "Shut up. Now... about that party."

The three girls carried on in their planning as the days flew by, and soon Halloween was only a few days away. They were planning to go down to the kitchens that day and acquire the food and drink needed for their party. It would, of course, definitely not even begin to compare to the fineries that would be in the Great Hall, but it was a plan that the trio of first-years were extremely proud of.

"So, I was thinking... is this Bash going to be only for Gryffindor, or for the other Houses as well?" Izzy asked. The trio were snuggled up against each other on Tris' bed, which was placed between Astera and Izzy's beds.

"What, thinking about inviting someone from another House?" Tris teased.

Astera rolled her eyes. "You two, shut it with the romantics. Besides, everyone else in Gryffindor knows about this, we're bound to have some people telling people from other houses, inviting friends, people eavesdropping, so on... Anyway, let's get back to this." The ebony-haired girl turned back to her own diagrams for the plans. "Now, for the Kitchen Heist..."

"Problem is, guys, that there's no way that us three will be able to pull of a Disillusionment Charm," Astera said thoughtfully after a few moments of silent brainstorming. "Any ideas? We can't be getting caught..."

Izzy noticed Tris biting her lip and raised an eyebrow. "Tris, spit it out."

Tris sighed. "You know how my dad has those… _objects…_ passed down from the Marauders..."

Astera's eyes widened. "You have it?"

Izzy looked between the two of them, brow set in confusion. "What?"

"My dad's Invisibility Cloak and the Marauder's Map," Tris explained. Naturally the three had grown up hearing many stories of their parents' Hogwarts years, and the trio also knew of the fabled Deathly Hallows, as well as the Animagi Marauders.

"Blimey!" Izzy gasped. "Your dad gave those to you?"

Tris nodded with a grin. "Told me not to cause _too_ much trouble with it, though."

Izzy sniggered. "We all know that's never going to happen."

Astera grinned. "Operation Kitchen Heist is fully planned!"

"Wait, wait," Izzy held up a finger. "Isn't there a Hogsmeade outing today, or tomorrow or something?"

"Yeah, Hogsmeade weekend is tomorrow," Tris nodded in affirmation. "Why? You know we're in first year still, we won't be able to go."

"Sadly so. I hear Honeydukes has quite the supply of candy," Astera added.

"Well, for the party, we're going to be needing a lot of supplies than we have," Izzy thought. "And well, if we could ask Heather and Miranda to get some stuff for us. They're really excited about this."

Tris snorted. "They're going to the Halloween Ball. They're in _fourth year_ already."

"So?" Izzy pressed, looking from one friend to another. "They could still get us supplies."

"It is a good idea," Astera thought. "Tris?"

Tris nodded after a moment's pause. "Alright. Let's make a list first, though, of what we want them to get for us."

The list ended up including streamers, balloons, posters, and a lot of other spooky decorations that the first year girls had thought up. Kel had jokingly suggested a giant football to hang from the ceiling, which Tris had immediately shot down.

"To be honest, we should get a giant Quaffle or something and hang it up," Izzy mused.

"A Quaffle? Snitches are better, _obviously,_ Rachel," Astera sniffed in a mockingly haughty way.

Tris laughed. "Knock it off, you two. I'm going to go bring this list to Heather and Miranda."

"We'll come," the two other girls said quickly.

/\/\/\

Despite the girls' avid preparations for the Halloween Bash that they were planning, soon all attention turned to another large event that was coming up only four days before the thirty first of October—the Gryffindor-Hufflepuff Quidditch Match.

Hufflepuff was a house that was known to be a team, and their Quidditch Team was like a well oiled machine. They worked together in sync perfectly, even though they might not be the most talented of players, they could play together, and that was extremely important in a Quidditch Team.

Kel (the Quidditch captain) was working the team's bones off with his vigorous training and various pep talks, and though he was proudest of his current team than any one team which had come before, he still pushed them to the brink every practice.

After all of this buildup, Astera was practically jumping out of her skin from nerves as she waited through the beginning calls of the game and the calls of the names of the Hufflepuff players.

Then the commentator of the Quidditch game began reading out the names of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, and after a quick team shake, the seven of them flew into the air.

It was strange, but as soon as the young girl took to the air, the feeling of nerves was greatly diminished. One would think that the nerves would increase hundredfold as soon as she saw the hundreds of multicolored students in the stands, cheering, booing, and the likes. But as soon as she saw her friends' encouraging faces, felt the mildly chilly air rush against her face, her nerves seemed to disappear and was replaced by a strong urge that completely took her over.

The urge to win.

The young seeker flew up in the air, gaining a high vantage point so that she could look down upon the match, being able to watch the gameplay and watch for any signs of the Snitch. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Holly Dreidman, the seventh year Hufflepuff seeker, fly up from below. The girl gave her a small, respectful smile, but no more was given, to make it clear that they were only respectful competitors, not friends.

Astera could hear the Quidditch commentator speaking from far below, her voice warbled and lost through the high Scottish winds up in the air above the Quidditch Pitch. She looked down, watching the players below as they passed, dropped, and maneuvered…

And…

Astera blinked hard for a moment, then instinctively swooped downwards, aware of Dreidman following her from behind. Expertly maneuvering between the players flying on the field on her Firebolt 7 that had been shipped to Hogwarts from back at the manor, she mentally calculated how hard she would have to pull up to get at the Snitch, which was hovering perhaps a few feet or so above the ground.

She sighed internally, preparing herself for a crash, pulling herself into a dive. The seventh year Hufflepuff seeker didn't have a chance. Astera barreled at the ground and the Snitch, grabbing it in expert fingers. Astera angled her broom upwards and decelerated so that when she hit the ground, it was not a deadly crash.

Which was certainly a good thing, the exhilarated young seeker thought as her team crowded around her, cheering on their new seeker and the terrific catch she had just won the game with.

Astera grinned as her teammates lifted her up into the air, chanting, "Malfoy, Malfoy, Malfoy!"

Pride filled her up like a hot air balloon, and she was grinning as they carried her back into the castle.

Grinning from her first ever victory.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **A/N: Note that despite the fact that I have a well-planned outline and that I'm working ahead by a few chapters or so, I have started the school year this week and am taking three high school courses in my final year of middle school, so there's a lot of work to be done for good grades and such. This means that my biweekly updating schedule may slow down to every week instead.**

 **Also, keep in mind that I'm absolutely** _ **terrible**_ **at writing Quidditch matches. I might improve in the future.**

 **Maybe.**

 **Next Chapter: The Kitchen Heist, and Halloween!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Child of Night: The Whispers**

 **Chapter Six**

Astera shivered as she walked down the corridors of Hogwarts. She felt an odd feeling in the castle. Some kind of strange, mysterious, darkly evil sensation that she had never felt before.

"What's up with you, Ast?" Tris asked, shaking her out of her reverie.

"W-What?" Astera asked, putting on a mask of calm. No doubt her friends would laugh at her and call her crazy if she told them anything about her feelings of dread for that day.

"Ast, you can tell us anything, you know that right?" Izzy said in a concerned tone.

Astera sighed. "It's stupid... I just have this feeling, you know? Maybe it's a weird thing on Halloween but I've never felt it on this day before.

"Don't worry, I'm sure it's fine," Izzy assured her.

This did nothing to quell her doubts, however, and the whole day Astera was jittery with nerves, both of the upcoming heist and the feeling of dread she had all day.

Every time she was called upon in class she would practically jump out of her seat in surprise and shock, much to her embarrassment and the laughter of others. Every time this happened her friends would glare at the students who would laugh and they would shut up rather quickly.

Soon lessons were over and the free time that they had flew by in a flurry of last minute preparations for their Halloween Bash, and then Astera and her friends were heading down to the Great Hall for the Halloween Feast.

The whole entire school was lost in excited chatter that evening at the Halloween Feast, for this year the first, second, and third years had something to look forward to as well—the much talked about Halloween Bash that was being thrown by the three first year Gryffindors.

The Great Hall was amazing: Hagrid's giant pumpkins had been deposited in certain areas around the hall, and there were live, enchanted bats flying above their heads, chittering away to each other.

The food was amazing too. Izzy had been right, or at least, her father had been—the food was absolutely amazing! It was at least on par with Molly Weasley's cooking, if not better.

However, much in contrast to the rest of the people in the Great Hall, the girls were in nervous jitters at their impending heist. They would have to go down to the kitchens right after the Feast and go get their bulging sacks of food for the Bash in the common room.

They had acquired a few burlap sacks from the purchases of Heather and Miranda, and they would be filling these in the kitchens, then levitating them up to the tower under the Invisibility Cloak.

There they would set out the food on tables that some of the older years would conjure. They had set some of their older Weasley cousins to the task of following their decoration diagrams to put up the decorations in the Gryffindor Common Room, and as soon as this was all done the wireless that they had borrowed from one of the girls in fourth year would be charmed to have a much louder sound and then they would be able to have music at their party as well.

However, this kitchen heist was at the forefront of the girls' minds, and they were full of nervous jitters. They knew that there would be many professors patrolling the corridors for hints of troublesome activity on this night of all nights, and they would have to be very, very, very careful to avoid trouble on their heist. Tris had originally suggested that they do this the night before so as to avoid this tightened security, but Izzy had argued that this would cause the food to be much less fresh.

Tris would play the most important part of this heist, as they guessed that the house-elves would still remember Harry Potter from back in the Battle of Hogwarts.

Many of the third years and below had not eaten as much in preparation for the Halloween Bash, which held a promise of large amounts of food straight from the Hogwarts kitchens.

Soon the Feast was over and the girls had done their preparations, the older Gryffindors still back in the Tower setting up the decorations.

The three girls easily fit under the Invisibility Cloak, as none of them had hit their growth spurt yet and were all together able to fit. They hurried down the halls towards their destination: the below-floor corridors that held the painting of the fruit bowl that was the entrance to the kitchens. The girls looked around quickly to see if anyone was there, and then Astera tickled the pear in the painting and the entrance to the kitchens swung open.

The girls tore off the invisibility cloak and Tris stuffed it in her knapsack before the girls climbed through the entrance and stood, shock still, in the entranceway to the kitchens as the painting swung closed behind them.

"Blimey, this place is amazing," Izzy breathed in amazement.

"There's so much..."

"Food," Astera finished for Tris.

"Wow."

Grinning, the three girls shouldered their burlap sacks and rushed forward. The house-elves looked up at them curiously.

"Uh... hello," Astera said nervously, looking at Tris.

"Right," Tris sighed. "Um, I'm Tris." There was no reaction, and for a moment, the girls thought they had been wrong about Tris being able to bring a reaction from the house-elves. "Tris Potter."

The house-elves' eyes went wide, and one asked, "Are you a relation of the great Harry Potter?"

"Um, yeah. He's my dad."

No more was needed to be said, as the house-elves immediately scrambled over themselves to offer the girls food and drink. Within no time the three burlap sacks that they had brought with them were bulging with food, and the girls were a bit fuller than they had been from the Feast: some of the offered treats just looked too wonderful to resist.

"Oi, that's enough, you bloody house-elves," Izzy complained after a few minutes. She attempted to lift her sack, and failed. "Blimey, all this food is bloody _heavy_. How are we going to get all this back up to the common room?"

Tris rolled her eyes. "Izzy, you're a witch, remember?"

Izzy blushed as Astera sniggered. "Oh yeah. Right. Sorry."

After Tris had bade the house-elves a polite farewell, the girls threw the Invisibility Cloak back other themselves before checking the Map, then clambering out the painting.

With the aid of the Map, the girls were able to make it up to the common room without running into any teachers that might raise an eyebrow at the three floating burlap sacks. As they constantly checked the Map and had to keep their wands raised and concentrate on levitating the sacks, they were thoroughly worn out by the time they got back to the common room.

Tris tore off the Invisibility Cloak and stuffed it in her pocket after a glance at the Map to make sure no one was anywhere even remotely nearby.

"Wand wood," Astera told the portrait.

"Right you are, mysteriously appearing ghost," the Fat Lady mumbled, swinging open to let the girls into the festively decorated common room.

The girls clambered into the dormitory, which was populated by a large number of animated stuffed bats that had been charmed to fly around and seem alive for the evening. Orange and black streamers and balloons were everywhere, and several of the armchairs had been draped with orange and black covers, both to decorate and protect the age-old armchairs from the mess that the partygoers were bound to make.

"Blimey," Izzy breathed. "It seemed great when we planned it, but once up, it's bloody _amazing._ "

They weren't able to say any more than this, however, as they were suddenly pounced upon by Ily and Ashlynn.

"You made it!" Ashlynn cheered.

"Yeah, you were so long we thought you'd been caught," Ily added. Then she saw the sacks levitating in the air to the side, and she gasped. "Wow, look at all that food! Come on, some of the upper years conjured a few tables to the side of the common room for refreshments."

After much debate on which foods to put where, the girls were finally ready. The wireless that had been donated from one of older girls was blasting music with the Sonorus Charm on it. Most of the armchairs, couches, and loveseats had been moved to over by the window boxes, which was a sitting area for anyone who might wish to rest.

The girls, grins wide on their faces, opened the portrait for the guests from other houses to come in. Within no time the party was in full swing. Many of the upper years who had not wanted to dance so formally at the Halloween Ball had come as well and now were dancing crazily and singing along to the music blasting from the donated wireless.

Astera had been able to ignore the feeling for the last few hours or so, but now the feeling had come back with a vengeance. Fatigue and haunting fear racked her body and she didn't respond in the slightest when Izzy shouted, "This is awesome!" over the loud sounds of music and dancing and laughter in the Gryffindor common room.

"Ast, you okay?" came Izzy's concerned voice.

"Y-yeah, I just need a moment," Astera said, hurrying up to her dormitory with her curious and concerned friends following as well. She turned and sighed. "I just need to go to sleep, I feel really tired. You guys go enjoy the party, I'll be fine." She offered a weak smile.

"You sure, Ast?" Tris said worriedly.

"We can stay up here if you want," Izzy added.

"It's your party."

Ast smiled and waved them off, shaking her head. "Nah, I'm fine, but thanks, guys."

Her friends reluctantly left the dormitory and Astera fell into a deep slumber as soon as she snuggled into her comfortable blankets, trying to ignore the haunting evil that she felt with every waking step.

/\/\/\

 _She was having a nightmare. And for once, she knew it was a nightmare, but that didn't make that pain any less real. Part of her mind was screaming at her to wake up, and the other half was screaming in pain. She was tied to a spire of rock, a yawning pit of a darkness below her, at the bottom of which was a faint red haze._

 _And a boy stood in front of her. His face was handsome, yet terrible in its own way—it was oddly dark and unforgiving. Sinister, and cruel. Her eyes flicked up to him and she flinched. The boy laughed. He raised a wand and flicked it at her, not even needing to say any words at all—_

 _A blinding red light shot towards her, and the pain resurfaced. Her dream self was screaming in pain again, while her real self was also screaming—except that part was screaming WAKE UP! WAKE UP! WAKE UP! like a very ineffective alarm clock._

 _She imagined scrunching up her face and concentrating on waking up, but the only thing that happened was the dream getting even more realistic._

 _The boy lowered his wand and the pain stopped. She was panting in pain. The boy laughed._

" _Oh, you insignificant daughter of Nyx. You are nothing. Chaos thinks she can help you. She has, but not enough for you to win over me." His lip curled. "Even now she lies in chains in my father's palace. But you? Oh…. oh, you will face much worse than this…"_

 _The spire of rock disintegrated, and she fell._

 _She landed with a jolt of pain, and surprisingly, she didn't die. Then she remembered she was dreaming and she slapped herself._

"Sister.. Sister…."

 _She unconsciously took a step backward, and slippen on a rock, managing to right herself though the rock skittered backwards, landing with a plop, then a sizzle. She gulped._

 _Astera looked around, though she couldn't see far-mist hung in the air, not the magical kind, and covered the expanse in a slightly reddish fog. She surveyed what she could see. She was surrounded by a landscape covered in golden dust, dirt, blood, bones, and golden bubbles that spasmodically spewed out monsters. Her heart leapt to her throat, hammering in fear—Tartarus. She now realized what those strange places were from. Greek mythology, something Hermione had taught her among other things after her Muggle school days were over when she was a child._

 _Then suddenly, a voice rose out of the darkness..._

"Sister…"

" _Hello?" she called. Then she remembered several Muggle horror movies she'd watched with Izzy and Tris in the 'muggle room' back at Malfoy Manor, and how much she had laughed at the characters for their stupid actions. She slapped herself again for being so horror movie._

"Join us… Sister…"

 _Five horrible shapes emerged in front of her. The far left had pale blonde hair and dark brown eyes. Her torso was a gaping hole, and her insides were covered in frost. Astera shivered when she realised all her organs were missing._

 _The one next to her had a hollow head. Her eye sockets were windows into a bloody, hollow skull, brainless. She had a necklace of what seemed to be her own teeth around her neck._

 _The one in the middle had dark brown hair matted with blood. Bones stuck out in odd places, pale bloody skin barely covering her._

 _The one on the far right was literally skin and bones—every organ, every piece of flesh had been extracted from her body._

 _The one next to her had a vice versa situation—she was completely boneless. Her body sagged around her flesh and organs, swaying from side to side, unbalanced._

 _Then she suddenly recognized the middle figure._

 _Astera screamed, choking._

 _She took a few more steps backward, and her feet hit thin air._

 _She had backed herself into a corner—a river, rather._

 _And she was pretty sure the river would not be good for her health, judging from the rock that had fell into the river earlier and had promptly_ dissolved.

 _However, she was definitely more scared of the zombie girls._

 _No. She choked back the tears and swallowed. Hard. "I'm not your sister," she said forcefully._

 _The girls advanced._ "Join us, sister," _begged the organless girl._

 _The brainless girl reached forward and touched her arm. Astera flinched, trying to back away._

"Sister..." _hissed the frost covered girl, releasing a spray of snow that promptly melted._

"Sister..." _crooned the brainless girl, her voice echoing in her hollow head._

"Sister..." _rattled the fleshless girl, the words rattling her bones._

"Sister..." _the sound made by the boneless girl was squelchy, her boneless mouth puckering and squishing to form the words._

"Sister..." _her voice was so, so familiar…_

 _Sylvia screamed as the five girls simultaneously reached toward her. She reached up for her necklace, but it wasn't there._

 _The girls advanced, and, terrified, Sylvia stumbled backwards—right into the river._

 _The water burned, like liquid fire and acid mixed together. She didn't even bother trying to swim, her body useless as it screamed in pain. She went under in a matter of seconds, echoing whispers of_ "Sister…" _ringing in her ears…_

Astera woke with a small scream, and she immediately grabbed her pillow that she immediately pushed her face into, her small body racked with sobs… until she heard the crinkling of parchment…

The ebony haired girl whipped her head around to find a tiny slip of parchment that had been under her pillow before she disturbed it and was now surrounded by a sprinkling of black spots that hung in the air.

Astera read the parchment, and as soon as she was done with it, the slip of parchment fell to the floor with a growling noise…

But that wasn't the paper, Astera realized, and she whipped her head around with her wand ready…

" _We've found you, Child of Night,"_ she saw black, glossy eyes…

And then she saw nothing at all.

/\/\/\

Her friends find her hours later, going up to check on her. They resist the urge to scream when they see the hanging parchment above her, written in blood.

 _BEWARE._

No one noticed the fallen slip of parchment, hidden, tucked away behind the bed.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

 **A/N: *is casually cackling***


End file.
